To Build a Rocket
by Memory Theta
Summary: After years of running, a scientist is forced to confront his past. He did what it took to survive, he traveled across the multiverse to escape his dead Earth, however, none of that mattered when he stared down the barrel of his own creation. [AU] [Back from hiatus]
1. Prologue

**_Author's Note: Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest fanfiction, "To Build a Rocket". A few notes before we begin, first, this is the direct sequel to "Absurdity", HOWEVER, as you may notice, "Absurdity" is not complete yet. The reason why I am releasing the sequel before I complete the original story is primarily because I have had this idea in my head for the longest time and, really, the first story is on hiatus for the time being while I wrestle with writer's block and time management. The second reason I am writing this now rather than waiting is because this fanfiction pretty much stays entirely in a different fandom (at least past the prologue) than the previous fic (Transformers vs Marvel Cinematic Universe (Guardians of the Galaxy)) and does not require you to read the story prior at all to understand the plot. The main OC, Daniel Flynn's character is altered so drastically between the final (unwritten) events of "Absurdity" and the beginning of "To Build a Rocket" that you aren't missing a lot if you read the completed portions of "Absurdity" first, if Transformers: Prime fanfiction is your cup of tea. At any rate, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show._**

 ** _OBLIGATORY WARNING: THIS FANFIC CONTAINS (VAGUE AND MOSTLY NON-GRAPHIC) DESCRIPTIONS OF SURGERIES AND OTHER PROCEDURES THAT, WHILE NECESSARY TO ADVANCE THE PLOT, MAY BE SOMEWHAT DISTURBING TO SOME READERS. IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO WARRANT AN "M" RATING, BUT REGARDLESS, READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED._**

 ** _One more thing: I must give credit to The Sealer on with their Transformers: Prime fanfiction "All that Remains" for inspiration regarding the cyberformation of Earth. If you ever read this, The Sealer, do know that I really enjoyed your story and know that this is not a shameless rip-off of your work. Again, the involvement of the Transformers is directly limited to the prologue and the backstory (which all the details will be explained in the prologue for new readers to follow along). Anyway, I hope you enjoy my latest fanfiction, Thanks._**

 ** _Oh, and Happy New Years!_**

 **"To Build a Rocket"**

 **Chapter 1 – Prologue**

Nnowhere was really not where Daniel wanted to be, in any situation. It wasn't that he felt threatened by the chaos that surrounded him, far from it. His Mark XI Combat Suit provided more than adequate protection from most weaponry that could be carried by a single person, at least if they didn't turn his own designs against him. The suit was white and grey when not in combat, comfortable to wear and looked somewhat intimidating on the exterior, though, it was mostly defensive in design. Magnetically attached to his back was his trusty PMR-5 Phase Rifle, a deadly weapon of his own design that few things could survive a bolt from.

The reason for Dan's visit to this backwater was to negotiate an arms sale with a potential client. Apparently, word had gotten out of his designs, causing his mailbox to be filled with requests for demonstrations. He wasn't particularly thrilled about having this kind of attention, he had just gotten off Thanos' radar and he didn't want to get back on. Suddenly, in the middle of the crowded road, he stopped dead in his tracks, his heart began to pound, vision beginning to blur. Terrifying images flew through his mind like asteroids. Taking a gasp for air, he refocused himself and regained awareness of his surroundings. He saw something blinking on his HUD, **_SIGNAL DETECTED._**

Puzzled, Daniel queried, "computer, what signal has been detected?"

"The signal detected appears to be a CR-1 module," his helmet's masculine computer voice responded.

"That's impossible," Daniel argued, completely bewildered. "Check again, are you 100% positive of this?"

"Affirmative, based upon my databanks, this signal is distinctly a CR-1 module".

 _That would make sense,_ Daniel reasoned, _the Cortical Relay Mk. 1 did emit a very distinct signal._

"Use the ship to triangulate its location and place it on the HUD map".

A blue dot appeared on the map of Knowhere on the top-left corner of his HUD. What used to be a brisk walk mutated into a sprint. Pushing aliens of all types out of his way, he was overlooking a large portion of the center area of Knowhere, just where the signal originated from. Finding a spot where no one could see him, Daniel zoomed in on his target.

It was a raccoon.

 _No…_ Daniel mentally denied, _No… NO… THAT'S NOT FAIR. I purged the Halfworlder's computer system of all traces of my research. How does this EXIST!_

Daniel continued to stare at the origin of the signal, _is this why Thanos let me off the hook? Because he got what he wanted?_

From that moment on, all forms of emotion except for unadulterated rage faded from his consciousness. "Computer, enable smart-scope". Immediately, a crosshair appeared dead center on his visor. He demagnetized the rifle on his back and lined it up with his helmet's visor. He disengaged the weapon's safeties and pressed a few buttons on the weapon's side.

 ** _POWER SETTING: 15, PATTERN: BEAM_**

 ****He focused on his target once more, _he does look an awful lot like… Rocket._ He felt a wave of shame, depression and guiltiness even thinking of his name. However, he pulled himself together and ignored those thoughts, _he's probably a clone of Rocket_ , _sick bastards_. He aimed his weapon, but, just before he thought of pulling the trigger, his mind forced him back to the moment when this all started.

 **[FLASHBACK]**

It would be impossible for anyone to describe what _exactly_ Daniel Flynn was feeling at that very moment. The best analogy would be the emotional equivalent of being physically knocked out, that feeling of being adrift, without the capability to reason or move or think. However, like being knocked out (under most circumstances), you wake up with a horrid physical pain, which is exactly what happened to Daniel a few seconds later. Despite it being a completely psychological phenomenon, Daniel felt like he had _literally_ taken a bullet to his chest. He looked down, revealing his torso was indeed in tact physically. _Why? How is this possible? What is happening?_ Daniel thought haphazardly, becoming nauseous in the process. He continued to be in this state for a few more minutes before finally, the new Earth came back into focus before him.

The once lush, green, dirt ball of a planet had become cold to the touch. The grass that once were forests to small insects and other organisms were transformed into smooth, polished silver-metallic plains with no detail whatsoever. The buildings that once were the hallmarks of humanity were transformed into large metal structures designed to accommodate their large, metal overlords. However, from the largest and most majestic birds of prey to the smallest rodent to the so called "tertiary predators", humans, were turned to stone. Well, technically that wasn't true, it was more of a grey concrete like material. Daniel was surrounded by these echoes of life in all directions.

Suddenly, his vision started to turn red. His hands, followed by his entire body trembled with red hot emotion. His lips quivered, tear drops falling to the cold, unforgiving metal planet that he once considered his home. He collapsed and put his hands over his head. He screamed at the top of his lungs, "FUCK… YOU… MEGATRON… YOU… MONSTER!"

In a flash, his red-hot anger built up to a point that he couldn't take any longer, so he pulled his plasma pistol and fired at the statues that were once people. The pistol was a metallic grey, not unlike the "Earth" Dan walked with glowing blue accents created by the unimaginably hot element inside. _Stop,_ he thought with utter conviction, dropping the deadly weapon out of his hands, _if humanity can't have the Earth, then neither can the Decepticons._ Pushing the overbearing emotional pain aside, he picked up and holstered his weapon and walked away from the wreck of a robot suit behind him and began down the newly "cyberformed" street. He was wearing his tattered Mark VI combat suit (without its helmet) over top of his signature, white lab coat. His footsteps were the only sound that could be heard. Luckily, he had crash landed right by his house, which was just around the corner…

 _Bingo_ , Daniel thought, looking at most likely the only patch of dirt that was still in existence on Earth. On that circular patch of dirt was Daniel's house and laboratory, perhaps the last human structure still in existence… well, save for the International Space Station and its crew, who would die alone in the cold embrace of the cosmic vacuum when the food, water and power inevitably ran out. He stepped into the perimeter of the last known patch of dirt on Earth, noting the tingling sensation of passing through the energy shield that protected his home. As he approached the door, he unhooked a small tablet-like device from his armor's belt and scanned the area for any lifeforms. Dan knew that this was a near impossible long shot, but…

 ** _ONE LIFEFORM DETECTED, ORGANIC._**

Dan's heart kicked into high gear once again, except this time, it was because excitement, joy, and hope flooded his thoughts. He barged through the door, calling out "hello! Is anyone there?"

Instead of a response, all Daniel heard was the echoes of his own voice reverberating throughout the building. Frowning, Daniel said, "computer, did anyone enter the house within the last hour?"

Dan heard a soft beep, indicating that his computer was processing his command. For a split second, he was convinced the computer would say yes and tell him that the person was hiding under the master bedroom bed or something like that. But instead, all he heard was the depressing sound of the word "negative".

Daniel's heard sank, he almost collapsed and leant on the wall for support. However, in a brief flash of hot rage, he threw the device that supposedly gave him false hope and stomped on it with his armored boot with such force that it nearly split in two. Once again, his vision was red, but, this time he _knew_ what do with it. He coldly turned on his heel and entered his garage. It was full of vials and tubes, machines and whatnot that he used for his experiments. Yet, this was not where he kept the _really dangerous (and cool) stuff_. He walked to the other side of the room, revealing a hidden button behind a computer monitor. He pressed it, and immediately a small square section of floor in the center of the room slid away, revealing a secret basement accessible by ladder. As he climbed down, the harsh, LED lighting turned on around him, revealing many of Dan's inventions over the years. However, while most of the lab was completely pristine, one control panel in a lonely corner was completely covered in dust. He walked over to this panel and wiped the dust off with his glove. Immediately, the panel came to life. "Computer, confirm warhead type in the silo".

"50kg processed Tox-En warhead is not armed".

Tox-En was a chemical that was already utterly deadly to the beings that killed all life on Earth in its raw form, however, when processed correctly, it could kill with trace amounts. When he first learned of the of metal titans and this weakness, he devised this missile system in his backyard as a last resort measure, if they had invaded and were on the brink of winning, the warhead would be sent into the upper-atmosphere, making the entire planet uninhabitable to the titans for millennia. Still, their lifespans were still in the tens of millennia, but, at this point, Daniel thought of it as a giant middle finger to those who killed everyone who he held dear. "Computer, open the silo door".

"Command confirmed," the computer droned.

As he typed in the flight calculations into the main missile command terminal, he could hear the dull noise of the motor opening the door. The missile itself wasn't that large, only about a meter tall and about 500 centimeters wide, just bigger than most model rockets. However, due to Dan's _patented_ ion-drive technology, the missile could achieve the performance of a ICBM. Finally, after imputing all the calculations, he pressed one of two big red buttons near the edge of the touch-panel labeled "ARM". The second his finger pressed the button, an almost obnoxiously loud siren began to whale, while red strobe lights were activated.

"Attention!" The computer announced, "primary defense systems armed and primed for launch! Clear the backyard! Repeat, clear the backyard! This is not a drill…"

Daniel took a deep breath, everything except his finger and the launch button faded from his reality. A small part of him wanted to abort, as a death from Tox-En exposure is painful at _best_ , however, his vision turned red once again and the only phrase that came to mind was _LET THEM BURN_. Smirking, Daniel pressed the Red Button labeled FIRE.

But nothing happened.

He pulled himself back into reality when he realized that he did not hear the distinctive screech of ion engines powering on. Instead, all he heard was the computer complaining, "ERROR: Lifeform detected in the main silo. Safety protocols engaged, override available upon request". Then, the entire weapons system shutoff. Puzzled, Daniel climbed up the ladder and walked through his house through the backdoor into his backyard. He could see the open silo with the missile just sitting there, doing nothing. He grabbed a flashlight from his belt and shone it down the silo. He saw nothing and shrugged, _must be a glitch_ , he thought before making his way back inside

Just before he was out of earshot, he heard a somewhat high pitch sound behind him. It wasn't a constant tone like a beep, rather, it was like an animal call. Dan stopped dead in his tracks and turned around slowly to face the small missile once again. "What the hell is going on?" Daniel thought aloud as he shone his flashlight down the silo again. He saw nothing, but, he heard the sound again. _I think It's coming from under the missile!_

Dan walked over to the backyard garden and overturned a small rock, revealing another hidden button. Like in the garage, a small square section of grass slid away, revealing a secret maintenance shaft for the silo. Dan climbed down the ladder into the cramped crawlspace and he shone his flashlight ahead. Just under the missile, two sets of reflective eyes stared back at him. Daniel crawled forward and asked softly, "what are you?" As he got closer, the creature's body came into view; it was a raccoon. "Hey there little guy," Daniel cooed, "you stuck?" Dan crawled closer to the animal, and it became clear that it was injured. He stopped, reached into his pockets and put on some gloves before grabbing the animal, just in case it was diseased in some way. The raccoon yelled at Dan as he carried him out of the tunnel. "Shh, it'll be okay little guy, I got you".

After a few minutes of careful maneuvering, Daniel managed to get the Raccoon out onto the surface. He placed the raccoon on a patch of grass and flipped him over (after a mild struggle) to examine his injury. On first glance, it appeared to only be a sprained paw, however, he reached for his sensor instrument, but remembered that he had smashed it earlier. _Shit_. He collected the raccoon once again in his arms and brought him into his garage laboratory. He set him on one of the lab benches and told him to "stay", although he really didn't have to, the raccoon did not seem like he _wanted_ to move in the first place due to whatever injury he had. Climbing down into the basement, Daniel walked over to the missile terminal and pressed the ARM button once again. The sirens and strobe lights reactivated, scarring the little raccoon he brought in earlier. Dan knew this would happen, so he pressed the FIRE button immediately.

"Missile firing sequence initiated, ignition in 15… 14… 13…"

Daniel climbed up the ladder and scooped the raccoon back up in his arms, causing the animal to groan. "What should I call you, hmm?" He walked with the raccoon through the backdoor to watch the missile.

"5… 4…"

"You were found under a missile, so what about Missile? Do you like that name?" Daniel asked.

"2… 1… LAUNCH"

A deafening loud screech was heard for a fraction of a second as the missile darted out of the silo in a split second. Looking upward, he could briefly see the blue trail created by the ion thruster before it all vanished into thin air. He looked down to see the raccoon in his arms and looked into its dark chocolate eyes. "Missile the Raccoon doesn't really flow well, doesn't it?" Daniel pondered, looking to the raccoon for answers. Just before he settled for that name, a lightbulb flicked on in his head, "well, while this is technically incorrect, another name for a missile is rocket, isn't it?"

"Hmm, Rocket Raccoon sounds much nicer than Missile Raccoon, don't you agree?" Daniel asked. Even though he was only speaking to a Raccoon, something about how the creature looked at him made him believe that he liked the name.

"Alright, Rocket Racoon it is then!"


	2. The Infinity Surprise

**Chapter 2 – The Infinity Surprise**

His breathing quickened, his focus worsened, his pulse was getting out of control. Daniel then rethought his approach, _if Thanos and his goons recreated Special Weapons Project 89P13, it is my duty to not just destroy this drone, but also to cripple his capability to create more. I'll need information from this one to know precisely how he did it in the first place._

Dan put the rifle away and made his way down to the lower levels of Knowhere where his map told him where the raccoon was. However, by the time he got to the plaza, his map suggested that he had moved inside of a nearby building. _Shit_ , Daniel thought, trailing behind far enough not to be noticed. He put his sensors on high sensitivity, scanning everyone in his immediate vicinity. Eventually he caught up with the animal right where his HUD told him he was going to be, betting on other animals eating each other…

 **[FLASHBACK]**

Chuckling, he brought Rocket back inside and placed him again on one of the lab benches. It had been approximately one month since he found him underneath that… well, rocket. He grabbed one of the tablet-like sensor devices He pressed a few buttons, initiating a basic internal scan of Rocket's body. **_SPRAIN 95% HEALED IN LEFT PAW._** Daniel sighed in relief, _nothing serious as I thought._ He then sat back in his chair and buried his face in his hands.

"What are we going to do now, eh Rocket?" Daniel asked, looking at his new furry friend, "our home has been destroyed and the Interstellar Union is in ruin just like the rest of this goddamn galaxy! There's nothing left for us here".

"But! The trans-universal jump-gate is almost fully charged and ready for action, we'll be out of here in no time at all!" Rocket looked at him with blank eyes, Daniel knew on a deeper level that the animal was trying to comprehend what he was saying, after all, raccoons have always been known to be very intelligent animals. When he first realized his beloved home was dead, he was dying inside, emotionally gasping his last breaths. However, just before he lost all hope, he met those _cute little raccoon eyes_ , which acted as a sort of emotional defibrillator, bringing him back to life. At the time, he'd probably dare say he was _happy_. He redirected all power being generated by his micro-fusion reactor in the basement charging a trans-universal gate that could, in theory, allow him to jump _once_ to another reality. While he could _predict_ where he would land in that universe, there was still a margin of error… of about plus or minus fifty percent. He looked at the progress bar on one of the terminals, **_94% charged – ETA: five hours._** Then, he looked at the clock, which read, 19:05.

"Okay Rocket, we need to get up early tomorrow-"

Before he could even finish the sentence, Rocket had already relocated himself right in front of the scientist's feet. He clawed at Daniel's pants, obviously begging him not to utter the dreaded words, "bed time".

Rocket howled and put his hands over his snout. Dan chuckled and picked him up and put him into the "Raccoon House" he had built in the corner of his personal bedroom upstairs. Immediately after he placed him in the miniature structure, the Raccoon leaped out and lay on his bed in an act of defiance. Dan rolled his eyes, "okay, I guess you can sleep here just this once, neither of us is likely to return here after tomorrow". Rocket looked at him with worried eyes. "How about a lullaby? Hm? Did I ever tell you the key to designing plasma based weaponry?"

 **[END FLASHBACK]**

Daniel snapped out of his trance, something was going terribly wrong, he could feel it in the crowd. When he finally was able to focus, he heard screaming, people seemed to be on edge. _There's a fight going on,_ Daniel reasoned based on how everyone was acting.

He then he heard words that would pierced the emotional armored shell he constructed like bullets through paper, "WELL I DIDN'T GET ASK TO BE MADE, I didn't ask to be TORN APART and PUT BACK TOGETHER ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN". It was at this moment that he knew that he made a mistake, one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

This wasn't some look alike or some clone as he thought earlier, this really _was_ Rocket.

He walked closer to the source of the commotion and saw the Raccoon in a stand-off. _Oh no._ Daniel thought, seeing that his former friend was pointing what appeared to be a laser cannon at someone else. A flurry of possible courses of action bombarded his mind like a large meteor shower, however, before he could pick, Rocket had already calmed down and lowered his rifle. It was times like these that caused Daniel to be ever grateful for his helmet that covered his entire face, because he could have sworn he teared up at that moment. _I need some air,_ Daniel thought, _somewhere I can think._

Daniel pushed his way through the crowd, eventually reaching the outside. He teared off his helmet as he gasped for air. _W-What just happened,_ Daniel mentally stuttered, not fully processing the magnitude of his findings. Rocket was alive, but that just opens a whole new can of worms. _How the hell did he escape? Does he still remember me?_ Based on his actions in the bar, he appeared to be unstable and unwell emotionally, no doubt a result of his time on Halfworld as he literally said a few minutes prior. Dan put back on his helmet and went through his helmet cam's footage of the barfight. Before he was even able to run all the faces he saw through the Nova Corps criminal database, he noticed a certain green alien woman in the background.

Gamora.

 _Ah shit,_ Daniel thought bitterly, _today's going to be a long day._ When his armor's onboard computer had finally finished analyzing the footage, five major warrants appeared on his HUD. Most notably, Rocket's mugshot was the first one on his left. "Damn," Daniel breathed as he read Rocket's list of charges. Twenty-three counts of escape from incarceration, seven counts of mercenary activity and to top it off, fifteen counts of arson. He glanced over the others quickly and remembering their faces before taking off his helmet once again, this time less violently. Taking a deep breath, he scanned the environment around him, he knew that the Nova Corps had no jurisdiction on Knowhere, but, he needed to know what this band of crooks were up to before they did something… awful. Daniel still had a hard time believing this was the same Rocket that he found under that rocket, and in a way, deep down he knew that was true. He knew exactly what augmentations he had installed on Halfworld, he _had_ designed them after all, even if he wasn't involved at all with their _installation_ in Rocket's small body.

He felt a surge of anger in his heart, he wanted to throw his helmet on the ground like he did during the raid of the Lab on Halfworld. However, he channeled his anger into determination, he was going to figure out what these guys intentions were, and to report back to Nova with them. He turned heel and walked back into the bar, his eyes scanned the crowd for his targets. Nothing. He then commanded his onboard to pinpoint Rocket's location. His eyes immediately went wide, _The Collector… they're selling something to The Collector_. Convinced, Daniel ran out of the bar and looked at the giant building the man used to store his collection. He had visited the Collector just after he arrived in this universe, with the man offering to pay handsomely for some of his trinkets that he had on his person. Before Daniel could create a plan to infiltrate the complex, his sensors detected a massive surge of energy.

"HIT THE DECK!" Daniel reflexively screamed as he did exactly what he said. Unfortunately, it was too late to bring his armor's shielding online, as the flames came too quick and engulfed Dan's body. The shockwave then sent him tumbling down the path for a dozen meters before he finally stopped.

It took him approximately thirty seconds to fully regain consciousness. Before he even got up, he mumbled, "computer… what in the hell just happened?"

"Massive energy surge was detected".

"Yes, yes, I know that," Daniel sighed, standing up and stretching his back. His armor was charred, and his helmet's visor had minor cracks, but, other than that, he was fine. "Give me a graph of the energy surge". The computer did as he asked, and Daniel's eyes widened when everything started to connect in his head. "Only an Infinity stone could produce that level of energy in that timespan," he mumbled.

Daniel turned around to see Rocket and who he knew from the arrest warrant to be Groot. The tree like creature had just let the raccoon out of his arms, and was just dusting himself off. Fueled by a new utter fury, he marched over to where they were and yelled, "what the hell did you think you were doing, selling a GODDAMN INFINITY STONE!" The raccoon looked up to him with surprised eyes, before retorting, "I don't know what your talking about, screw off".

Before Dan could open in retort, Gamora and Quill had already exited the building with the orb. Rocket looked at them with utter shock, "why do you still have that!"

"We need to get this to Nova, there is a chance they can contain it!" Gamora argued.

Daniel stepped forward and took off his helmet, "I can help with that".

Gamora recognized him, "you… you were on Halfworld!" Cracking a small grin, Daniel clasped his arms behind his back and questioned, "abandoning Thanos I gather?"

Before anyone could say more, the sound of starfighter engines thundered from behind. The group collectively turned to see what it was. The man Dan identified as Drax was standing right in front of where multiple Kree craft were landing in the middle of the road. Holding his knifes outwards from his sides, he announced, "I shall meet my foe and destroy him!"

Daniel was absolutely horrified, "you IDIOT!" He grabbed his rifle and turned to the others, "I'll stay with Drax, get the stone out of here!"

Doing as they were told, Gamora and Quill ran off. Rocket stuck around for an extra few seconds, apparently giving Dan's rifle a doubletake before running after his new friends. Dan stood a few meters behind Drax, "I'll leave Ronan to you," Daniel said, holding his rifle downwards and getting out of the way. He knew that Drax 'the Destroyer' would be no match for Ronan, but, he would be an excellent distraction.

Ronan stepped out of his craft onto Knowhere's soil with Drax bellowing, "Ronan the Accuser!" Ronan continued to step forwards, "you were the one who transmitted the message?" Drax's expression turned even more crazed, "you killed my wife, you killed my daughter!" Ronan's face hardened, perhaps out of confusion or amusement, it was clear that Ronan would not be defeated by this mere _peasant_ alone. He then looked to Drax's side, "and who are you?"

Daniel looked up, _oh shit._ It was his original plan to have Ronan distracted with Drax before lining up a clean shot with his Phase Rifle, but this eliminated this from the realm of possibility. "Ronan," Daniel spoke clearly, "it has been a while".

The Kree froze, instantly recognizing his voice, "Daniel Flynn, you have been a nuisance to me ever since you escaped from Halfworld".

Daniel smiled awkwardly behind his helmet, "I am honored; however, I am about to become far worse to you than that". He could see that the Kree was cocky in his presence, so, in a flurry of motion, Dan raised his rifle, raised his armor's graviton shielding and fired three blood-red phase energy bolts into Ronan's chest with perfect precision at close range. The first two bolts were fully absorbed by the Kree's armor; however, the last one burned through his skin (though not affecting any organs). For a fraction of a second, Daniel felt a real sense of _pride and accomplishment_ seeing the Accuser's blood drip to the floor, before lining up his killing shot. However, something happened that caused him to miss.

Drax happened.

The muscled, 6-foot-tall man barreled into Daniel, causing his would-be perfect shot to only deflect off the Kree's shoulder plating. Falling to the floor, Drax kneeling atop of him, the man growled, with his knife to Dan's throught, "Ronan is MINE!"

 _You… colossal… asinine… fool…_ Daniel mentally seethed.

Just as Drax got up to face the Kree, Ronan appeared out of nowhere and punched him, causing the man to go flying into a wall. Daniel looked up through his cracked visor as the Kree stood apparently victorious over him. Daniel pulled out his sidearm, but, Ronan kicked it away before he could fire a single shot. The Kree stepped forward and placed his heel on Daniel's throat. "You're so right about you being more than a nuisance. You are an enemy, and there is only one thing that happens to my enemies".

With his armor's shield power draining rapidly repelling what would be a killing blow, Daniel was running out of options. He could've tried running for his rifle, but, Ronan wouldn't let that happen for sure. In fact, according to Dan's tactical mind, there was only one way out of this. He unclipped a grenade from his belt and threw it straight up in the air into Ronan's face. The Kree dodged and dived for cover.

And that was all Daniel needed, as the grenade wasn't actually armed and fell to the ground harmlessly. He dashed for his fallen weapon that was only about a meter away and picked it up. Before Daniel could do anything else, Drax flew past him and attempted to stab Ronan, but, in the end, the Kree flicked him away with ease.

Daniel rolled his eyes and fired at the blue alien. However, he was prepared and dodged every one of scientist's bolts. Ronan grabbed his hammer and sent a gravity pulse through the air, sending Dan flying into one of the walls, cursing along the way. Before Ronan could finish the job, his communicator went off, "Ronan, it is done".

Smirking, Ronan turned around and glanced at Drax, who was still trying to regain his balance. The muscled man then ran up to him and tried to land a punch, but Ronan dodged again and grabbed him by the throat. After a few seconds of struggling by Drax, the Kree screamed and threw him to the ground. "I don't recall killing your family," Ronan said, "I doubt I'll remember killing you". The Accuser then kicked his opponent unconscious, dragged him to one of the spinal fluid tanks and threw him in, leaving him to drown.

Daniel, who pretended to remain unconscious, lifelessly watched behind his helmet as Ronan boarded his craft and flew off. After he was out of sight, Dan got up and looked around for split second before running toward the spinal fluid pool. It was at times like these when he wished he designed his armor to enhance his strength, because getting Drax out of the pool was… challenging at best for him. Once the man's limp body was in front of his body, his HUD automatically assessed his wounds. Immediately, it started flashing in red text **_WARNING, AIR PASSAGE BLOCKED_**.

 _Well no duh_ , Daniel thought. Before he could to anything else, he felt the ground shake slightly behind him, with a large shadow covering both Dan and Drax. The scientist turned around slowly, only to be met face-to-face with the large tree creature that he saw earlier. "I am Groot", the tree said, gently pushing Daniel to the side. "Hey, what are you doing…"

Dan cringed as he saw the tree generate a sharp twig and lined it up with Drax's air passage. Dan knew exactly what he was doing, but still, it wasn't pleasant to watch by any means. Coughing, the red and gray man clung back to dear life and vomited out spinal fluid. Daniel crouched down beside him, and asked in a completely calm tone, "do you realize that I had a clean shot? One extra millisecond of accuracy and that monster would have been fried".

Drax looked away in shame. Daniel saw this and decided to ease up a bit, it wasn't like this was the first universe he's ever lost. He leaned back on a wall. Suddenly, a mining pod crash landed a few meters away. "Blasted idiot!" Rocket yelled, "they're all a bunch of idiots". Daniel leaned against a nearby wall, "tell me about it".

"Quill just got himself captured!" The Genetically Modified Racoon continued, pointing at Drax "none of this would have happened if YOU didn't try to single handedly TAKE ON A FRICKEN ARMY!"

Dan stepped forward, "that's not half of it, I had a clean shot on Ronan after I punched a hole in his armor. If Drax here hadn't tackled me when I tried to make that shot, Ronan would be DEAD right now".

Rocket's eye twitched, it was just too much for him. Out of anger, he started kicking a patch of grass. "You're both right, I was a fool," Drax confessed, "all the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss". Daniel took off his helmet, knelt down to Drax's level beside him and said, "I completely emphasize with that, I'm from a different universe because my home world was terraformed by an asshole just like Ronan. Everyone I knew from that life died, I was the only survivor, except for a little Earth creature, called a Raccoon, that happened to get into my shielded area before…"

Daniel trailed off, knowing he just slipped up.

 _Raccoon…_ Rocket thought, _isn't that what Quill used to describe me?_

"What became of this 'Raccoon'?" Drax asked out of curiousity. Daniel sighed, stood up and looked away. "You really don't want to know, I mean, people die, but… he… didn't die… he suffered an even worse fate than that".

Daniel turned around to see Rocket, who looked like he had seen a ghost. He stood there, in deep contemplation for a few seconds, before asking in an uncharacteristically deadly voice, " _what was his name_?"

Daniel took a deep breath.


	3. To Ravage a Kree

**_Well I'm back. Did you miss me? Regardless of your answer to the previous, after just over a month of contemplation, I have decided it best to continue my writing as I feel that it keeps my literary skills sharp. Now, this does not mean in any way that I am committing to consistently updating my fics, far from it. But, if there is enough interest I will try and keep chapters coming, albeit slowly at times. With that said, let's get back to the action!_**

 ** _A few notes about "To Build a Rocket" specifically, first, as a sort of apology for my absence, I have written an XL chapter with extra action and dramatic spice for you people out there. Second, the first story arc will be ending soon (within one or two chapters) … and I just saw Black Panther… so, what you would you think of the Guardian's next challenge (between the events of GoTG 1 and 2) being a stealth mission in Wakanda? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as I have only started the preplanning stage for this._**

 ** _Anyway, let's get going!_**

 **Chapter 3 – To Ravage the Kree**

Daniel stared down at Rocket, forgetting he wasn't behind his HPS' orange polarized visor, his face conveyed emotion that was seemingly contradictory. Shame was painted all over his face, while his posture conveyed both fear and relaxation at the same time. Looking, into Dan's eyes, something stirred in the brown raccoon, something so deep he wasn't even aware of it. Finally, Daniel collected himself and put back on his damaged helmet, "honestly, my life story isn't that important when there is a goddamn infinity stone in that psychopath's hands, we need to get it back. Now".

"How?" Rocket yelled, "we should get to the other side of the universe, and maybe… MAYBE we'll live full lives".

 _Better yet, just jump between realities,_ Daniel thought, remembering when he did that two years ago. His thoughts became cold, flashing back to that very day.

 **[FLASHBACK]**

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Daniel's alarm went off at 05:00 and the metallicized Earth was pitch black, with no streetlamps or any artificial lighting to light the road. Daniel flicked on the lights, noting that they were fully lit rather than dim, something that wouldn't have been possible with him pouring virtually all power generated by the lab's mini-fusion reactor into his makeshift 5D-Jump Gate.

It was a crude way to get around the multiverse, Daniel had to admit. He used to have a more elegant solution, but, that was in his other laboratory across the globe, which, he confirmed to be unshielded, causing everything inside to be destroyed anyway. It was a shame, really, so much work that had gone to waste.

Daniel stepped out of bed, only to see Rocket staring back at him. Daniel stretched and sighed, "today's the day Rocket, nothing left in this universe for us". The Raccoon jumped off the bed, following Daniel down the stairs to his lab. He then flicked on a strange machine, that immediately dispensed a paper cup and started filling it slowly with a certain dark liquid. The raccoon beside him started to moan. "Rocket, remember what I told you, even if the world is falling apart, mornings are always… always for _coffee and contemplation_ ". Rocket huffed and silently jumped up on one of the tables, knocking one of the computer terminals beside the gate. Daniel turned at the noise, "rocket!" He admonished, running to the terminal, "this thing happens to have the fifth-dimensional hyper-spacetime coordinates for where we're going… one error is all it takes for us to get trapped somewhere random in the vastness of space, or worse". Quickly doing the calculations in his head he took a glance at the inputted coordinates to make sure they were valid. _Everything seems to be in order_ , Dan thought as he walked over to where he kept his Mark VII combat suit. While he did think wearing it was overkill (he was only planning to jump between _Earths_ after all), life had taught him that one can never be too careful, especially with things involving hyper-quantum physics.

After suiting up and grabbing a pistol from his armory, Dan put on his backpack that he had filled the night prior with supplies, just in case there was some error in the local coordinates… there was always a margin of error when it came to these sorts of things. He looked down to Rocket, who was looking at him with apprehension, "don't worry _my_ little _trash-panda_ ," he told Rocket in a soothing voice, "this new Earth much more peaceful than this one had ever been, apparently, there have been no wars on this Earth for over three-hundred years! Can you believe that?"

Daniel honestly couldn't wait, he had spent his life running, exploring, learning, and fighting since he was twelve years old… and he just needed a break, at least for a few years. He put on his helmet, grabbed Rocket and pulled him close to his chest. He then grabbed a chip on the desk that contained _all_ of his research, designs, etc. "Computer," Daniel ordered, standing in the circular gate, "begin jump sequence".

 ** _"Affirmative,"_** the mechanized voice droned, **_"it has been an honor. Setting coordinates to Universe MVRL-30DA3"_**

 _MRVL-30DA3?_ Daniel thought, _that's not right…_

But it was too late, and with a burst of green energy, the Earth was, for the first time in dozen million years, apparently empty.

Collapsing on the ground, Daniel's body ached everywhere. The floor was a glossy black, the walls were made of a silvery metallic metal, and starships were lined up across the floor. After a few seconds, Dan's universal translator activated and translated a massive sign to his left. It read: HALFWORLD RESEARCH, HANGAR 42. "Freeze!" A voice bellowed behind him. _Oh shit_ , Daniel thought, staggering to his feet with Rocket still in his arms.

 **[END FLASHBACK]**

Snapping himself out of his trance, Daniel looked back down at the furry bounty hunter, only to see that he was still waiting for him to say something. He had to come up with a plan, and a contingency to that plan, and a contingency to that contingency. When dealing with threats, especially this large, rarely does anything go according Plan A. His mind raced from one possible scenario to another, each one becoming more and more probable. Suddenly, he started to realize that every possible plan converges on one thing. Someone was going to have to contain the stone when it was released from Ronan's grasp. _I couldn't hold that stone for over a millisecond without being killed in the process,_ Daniel thought.

The scientist's eyes wondered, _unless Star-Lord happens to have some celestial DNA in him, we're royally flarked, though… that guy does have the Ego to match a demigod._ His eyes continued to wonder, until they locked onto something.

The spinal-fluid tank, more specifically the spinal-fluid of a celestial.

The cogs churned in Daniel's head _._ Briskly stepping past Drax, he gazed into tank. On the surface of the murky, yellow liquid, his mirror image stared back behind its orange, cracked visor. He knew that what he was thinking was suicide, but, he saw no other way. Not when Ronan was about to go on a speciescidal rampage. He grabbed a tiny vial out of one of his armor's pockets and collected a sample of the liquid.

 ** _SCAN COMPLETE, DNA ISOLATED._**

"Computer, connect to the _Ottawa_ and activate the nanite synthesizer," Daniel instructed with a whisper. "Execute DNA-Splice Sequence Omega-2-2-1B".

"What are you doing?" Drax questioned, looking at him suspiciously. Daniel snapped out of his focus and turned around and clasped his arms behind his back, dropping the vial into the tank. "Nothing," he responded flatly. "I am Groot," Groot said. Daniel frowned, his armor computer's translation matrix was having a difficult time making heads or tails of the tree's language. "Save them? How?"

"I am Groot," the tree argued.

"I know they're the only friends we ever had!" Rocket yelled. Those words pierced Daniel's heart like a dagger, but he knew he deserved it… somehow, someway he deserved every word and more. He failed him. "But there's an army of Ravagers around them, and there's only two of us!"

"Three," Drax corrected, wrapping his arm slightly around Groot's neck. Daniel shrugged his shoulders, "I've faced worse before, count me in". Rocket's eyes were wide. He then growled and started kicking the same patch of grass he was kicking before, "Gah! you're making me beat up grass!"

Daniel rolled his eyes at the display, "we have to come up with a plan, NOW". It was at this point when Daniel knew that Rocket was working on something amazing, because his eyes went distant in the same way his did when he was thinking of something _genius_. A small, almost proud smile curved Dan's lips as he watched the raccoon work out all the details in his head… well, technically his genetically enhanced brain communicating with his CR-1 implant's duotronic processor which then works with the tactical co-processor…

Anyway, Daniel looked at the seconds ticking by in the corner of his HUD. Letting out a deep sigh, he prepped himself incase Rocket came up empty, something he doubted would happen, though, would still be in the realm of possibility. _I am not letting this universe go, not like the last one,_ he thought with determination, _even if it takes me to my grave._ After a few more moments, Rocket's ears shot up and his eyes sparkled with accomplishment, "I've got a plan". Daniel's eyes narrowed slightly, "I'm listening".

Rocket climbed onto a crate to make himself appear taller. "Okay, listen up, we're basically goin' to get Star-Munch's ship, find the Ravagers, and demand they give 'em up".

Daniel could have sworn he went cross-eyed at that moment, he exhaled deeply, _that has got to be the dumbest… wait…_ Daniel pondered for a few moments. "That could actually work, provided we have some leverage".

Rocket bared his teeth in a smile, it wasn't what anyone could consider a nice smile… more like that smile all the villains have when they're about to reveal their evil plans. "Oh, I have something that will give us a lot of leverage". Daniel's blood ran colder, he did not like the sound of this, nor did he like that smile. Nonetheless, Rocket got off the crate and gestured to everyone to follow him. Daniel followed behind Groot, who was still quite a mystery to him. Yes, he has seen sentient trees before and, yes, he has interacted with them, but, none of them were really mobile. Daniel could immediately that Groot was something different, a new form of life that combines animal and plant characteristics? Such a notion intrigued him to no end.

After briskly walking through the surprisingly quiet streets of Knowhere (everyone probably left after the shooting started), they arrived at the spaceport. He could see his ship from the entrance, as well as the Ravager M-Ship they would be using to rescue Quill… and Gamora. Dan rubbed his head, he had quite a past with Gamora, in fact, she'd been there when he and Rocket had first arrived in this… universe. Daniel struggled to keep that memory from resurfacing, he needed to focus, or everyone in this universe was going to die. He followed the rest of the group into Quill's ship and trailed behind Rocket as he pulled something out something under a pile of wires. _A Hadron Enforcer Mk. I,_ Daniel thought, immediately recognizing the weapon. It was one of his older designs from when he resided in his previous universe. When he had jumped between realities, he made a more compact design, but, he never saw a reason to actually _build_ the prototype, as the same threats that existed in his universe were not present here. "Rocket, how did you _invent_ this?" Dan asked.

The Raccoon stopped what he was doing and looked up to him, "I ain't got time to explain it, you thinking I didn't invent it?" Daniel shook his head, "no I'm not saying that, it's just an impressive feat of engineering being able to harness and weaponize Hadron energy". The Raccoon's ears perked at this, he seemed to be somewhat unnerved that someone had figured out what, let alone how this thing worked. "Yeah, yeah," he brushed off, trying to come up with an insult. "At least I actually invent weapons, what do you do with your spare time? Reading a dictionary?"

 _Oh, you have no idea, Rocket,_ Daniel thought somewhat bitterly, _no idea._ "Tell me when you have figured out the details out your plan," Daniel told Rocket as he walked out of the room. He had no time for banter, being distracted for a minute could be the difference between success and failure, between life and universal annihilation. He leaned against the wall and pulled something up on his HUD. **_NANITE SYNTHESIS: 89%_**. _Almost there._

"Attention idiots!" Rocket announced proudly over the comms.

Daniel, who had repaired his visor since he boarded the ship fifteen minutes ago, facepalmed at his former companion's _negotiation tactics_ while standing behind him. _Ugh, this is never going to work_ , Daniel thought bitterly.

"The idiot standing atop this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer, it's a weapon of my own design," Rocket continued, unknowingly stoking the ire of the scientist behind, who muttered something incomprehensible to him. "if you don't hand over our companions now, he's gonna tear your ship a new one! A very big new one!"

"I am giving you to the count of five!"

"Wait, what?" Daniel spoke, looking down at the Raccoon with a stunned face. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Five…"

 _What the hell?_

"Four…"

Daniel's body tensed, and he instinctively placed his hand on his holster, preparing to intervene on the count of two if some miracle didn't happen.

"Three…"

A panicked voice reverberated through the cabin through the comm system, "Rocket, it's me, for God's sakes! We figured it out!"

Daniel's body relaxed, albeit slightly, his hand fell to his side. _That was a close one_.

"Oh, hey, Quill. What's going on?"

A relieved sigh could be heard over the comms, Daniel rested his head on a nearby bulkhead. He thought about creating new armor that could…

 ** _NANITE SYNTHESIS COMPLETE. AWAITING FURTHER COMMAND._** , streamed across Daniel's HUD with a cheerful 'ding' sound-effect. His heart jumped, a natural self-preservation response, knowing what the message meant. Climbing his way out of the flight-deck, he found a spot where he was sure that nobody was watching. He pressed a few buttons on his armband, causing text to stream down on the left side of his vision. Suddenly, the mechanized voice inside his helmet droned, "MATTER-ENERGY TRANSPORTER Mk. 2 READY. ENERGIZE?"

"Energize," Daniel sighed softly, looking down at the ground behind his visor with depressed eyes. He could feel the ship starting to accelerate towards the Ravager hangar bay, prompting him to move quicker. Out of thin air, a somewhat large, silver metallic box materialized out of thin air with a pleasant blue effect. He bent down and undid the latches that held the lid down and opened the box. The interior was lined with foam, having cut-outs in it specifically for the items it carried. Dominating the box was, in multiple pieces, a long, sniper-rifle looking weapon, next to a somewhat small vial of clear liquid. Grabbing the vial, he held it up to the light, noting the shadows cast by the nanites inside. He grabbed a medical injection device, called a hypospray, and loaded the vial into its bottom. _I hope I don't have to use this._

The ship suddenly jerked, indicating to Dan that his time to himself was nearly up. Quickly grabbing its parts, Daniel assembled the long, almost unwieldly weapon. While Daniel almost always used boring, unassuming IDs for things he invented, to be fair, this weapon was officially called the XPR-0, however, Daniel preferred to call it, even in technical documents, as the _Infinity Gun._ This was because this weapon could only be powered by a potent, near infinite, energy source, beyond Daniel could have dreamt of up to this point. As a result, the project was mothballed, and while Daniel hadn't developed zero-point reactors _yet_ , he had something even greater in mind to light his darkest hour, one that would, almost invariably, kill him. He wouldn't allow another Megatron to win, he just couldn't…

He heard Rocket yell from across the ship, "Daniel! We have to go!"

Locking his trusty phase rifle in the metal container, he magnetically holstered the Infinity Gun onto his armor's back plating and joined Drax, Groot and Rocket in leaving the ship. He thanked his lucky stars that his Mark IX armor was a complete redesign compared to his previous suits, as he recognized a few faces on the way through the Ravager ship's corridors. Finally following Rocket and Groot into a somewhat large, he set his eyes on Quill and Gamora.

"Darth Vader," Daniel called Gamora by the nickname he gave her just after he arrived. Quill perked up at the reference, "how do you know about Vader? What does that have to do with Gamora?"

"I'm Terran, obviously," Daniel sighed with slight annoyance lacing his words, "Gamora and I have… been acquainted for quite some time now". The green woman looked away, perhaps out of irritation… or something else that she simply couldn't process at the time. "Now," Daniel clasped his hands behind his back, walking towards the center of the room.

"What the hell are we going to do now?"

"I figured it out, we're going to get the stone back from Ronan," Quill assured, looking somewhat out of touch with reality. "You call that figured it out?" Rocket asked with a hint of incredulous laughter, "we're going to rob the guys who beat us senseless?" Looking away, Daniel muttered something under his breath and walked out of the circle they were all apparently now sitting on the perimeter of. While casually getting the gist of what they were saying, which wasn't much given the tone of their voices, Daniel contemplated what he was doing. His armor was, to say the least, antiquated. Even compared to his old revisions of the Human Protection System Armor, such as the Mark VII that he left his reality with, his armor was inferior. Given the circumstances of its creation, being something, Daniel slapped together using spare parts in the Nova's basement, it is quite impressive… and although he does have his designs for its successor, the HPS armor Mark X, he just hadn't been up to building it.

He refocused his attention back onto the group, who appeared to have settled down. Rocket had that look on his face again, and the rest of the group was deep in thought. _Best not disturb them_ , Daniel reasoned, _if they succeed, maybe I don't have to die._ Hand brushing over the solution in his pocket, his mind wandered.

 **[FLASHBACK]**

Daniel laid against an old, scuffed up metal wall. His cell was cramped, with his feet almost touching the other side in his position. A light blue forcefield of some kind kept him from escaping. They stripped him of all his possessions, including his flash drive containing all of his research, and threw him in this place. They'd also separated Dan from Rocket, something he really didn't appreciate, not knowing what was happening to him.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the force field fizzled away with a sharp hiss. His gaze slowly turned to see a woman with green skin, flanked by two reptilian guards. She looked at the guards and gestured something to them. They nodded their heads and dragged Daniel to his feet. "Where are we going?" Daniel asked with irritation lacing his voice. "Silence, terran," the green woman snapped. They walked down endless corridors, each seeming more haunting than the next. The walls were a clinical white, while the floors remained a deathly, glossy, ebony color.

Turning to a door on the left, they reached their destination. One of the guards opened the door and they pushed Daniel inside. The room was cramped with nothing in it other than a small, rectangular table with two chairs at each end. Sitting opposite to Daniel was a middle-age looking man, who looked… human?

The guards forced Dan into his seat opposite to the man, who was studying him curiously. "I apologize," the man started in a conciliatory tone, "tact is not one of the Chitauri's strong suits".

"What is this place?" Daniel asked, confused. The man across from him grinned, but, before he could answer, Daniel raised his arms. "Look, I completely understand your reaction, some weird person randomly appears out of nowhere in your facility-"

"It's alright," the man chuckled, "you are an extremely intriguing character, Mr. Flynn. You're a multi-universal traveler, hopping between universes for the fun of it, developing new technologies that I must say, are impressive even by our standards…"

Daniel's breath hitched, he did not expect his interrogator to know this much, "hold on, where'd you…" Chuckling the man cut him off, "you really need to update your encryption, your algorithm is quite dated".

 _Shit, they have access to my files._

"Mr. Flynn, the answer you give in response to my next question will greatly determine how we proceed with all this…" the man droned. Daniel perked up, listening to his next words carefully. The man leaned forward and said, "allow me to introduce myself, my name is Krunt Fallapadax, I am the Director of this facility. In our universe, we are on the cutting edge of various scientific disciplines; however, after reviewing the content on your data drive, we were blown away with your technical talent. For this reason, I'd like to formally invite you to join our team in advancing life as we know it today".

Daniel was caught off guard by the offer. "U-uh, you flatter me, but, I barely know anything about Halfworld research… what you're studying, what your inten…"

"All of that can be explained later," Krunt laughed half-heartedly, "but, I need to know, do you accept?"

Dan smiled. Krunt had cornered him, and he did have to admit that the prospect of working at an alien research institution once again was appealing. He owed a lot to alien science and education when it came to his own discoveries and designs. Acting on impulse alone, he said, "I accept provisionally".

Krunt's face soured slightly at the word provisionally, but, he covered it up with a friendly smile. "Of course, we aren't going to _force_ you to make up your mind just yet". At that moment, Daniel could sense something was wrong, but, he didn't bring it up, rather, he asked, "I came here with a small, brown furry creature, do you know what happened to him?"

"Rocket is in good health, we're running… medical tests on him to ensure he isn't… carrying any infectious diseases before we allow him to…" the Director paused to consider his word choice.

"Participate in other _activities_ we have planned".

 **[END FLASHBACK]**

Checking that his plasma pistol were fully loaded, Daniel looked up towards the 'team'. They'd already discussed the plans with Yondu, and, with his greenlight, were heading to their assigned posts. Since he had the most experience, Daniel volunteered to contact the Nova High Command directly with his access codes. He gritted his teeth as the agonizing seconds went by, praying someone… someone would answer on the other end. Finally, a low-level corpsman appeared on his screen. "Daniel Flynn," he acknowledged in a somewhat abrupt tone, "we have no assignments for you, what do you want?"

"Listen to me," Daniel said in hushed yet urgent tone, "I need to speak to Nova Prime immediately, this is urg-"

"Nova Prime is a very busy woman Mr. Flynn," the corpsman said condescendingly, "even with your past dealings with her, I'm afraid I can't-"

"Corpsman, I'm sure you wouldn't want to explain to Nova High Command your inability to pass on vital information regarding an Infinity Stone in Ronan's possession heading straight to Xandar".

The corpsman's eyes bulged, and he started to noticeably tremble at the words Daniel uttered. "Uhh, I can patch you through… right away!"

Suddenly, Daniel's HUD went blank once again, although, the Nova Corps did add some lovely elevator music to pass the. He looked up to see Quill, who was motioning to him to get moving. "I'm on hold!" Daniel grunted in frustration. Finally, after what seemed like a millennium, Nova Prime answered. "Hello Daniel," she said with a somewhat friendly voice, "I must say your call is unexpected".

"Listen," Daniel started, dispensing with any pleasantries off the bat. "Ronan has the purple Infinity Stone and is making a B-Line for Xandar as we speak. I've got these guys here… a bunch of Ravagers and some convicts of your who I genuinely believe want to help".

Nova Prime looked away to someone else, who was obviously filling her in on some information, "can these people… be trusted?" Quill whispered something in Daniel's ears, which he then parroted to Nova Prime, "Peter Quill, one of the individuals wanting to help, says 'he's an a-hole, but, not 100% a dick'. I'll send you a complete list of… our help… momentarily, Flynn out".

Daniel closed the connection and looked up to Quill, who was slightly taller than himself. "Nice line," he said, walking past him towards the _Milano_. His mouth tugged up in a small smile, once again being impressed by Rocket's tactical and strategic abilities, even amongst impossible odds. _It might actually work_ , Daniel thought in reference to Rocket's plan, climbing into the _Milano_ 's flight deck and sitting in one of the passenger seats. However, in the back of his mind, he knew that his contingency was still there… waiting in his pocket.

That's what terrified him so much.

After flying through hell, Daniel was not exactly excited to start fighting once again. Gripping his plasma pistol, he followed the rest of the guardians out of the _Milano_ , which, had crash landed right in Ronan's flagship as planned. While his visor did have night vision, the rest of his teammates did not. Cursing to himself for not thinking of bringing some form of light for the others, he thought of something to help them see. However, before he could actually do anything, Groot lit the way with what Daniel could only describe as a sort of flowery, fluorescent, floating, yellow spore. "Incredible," Daniel breathed as his night vision compensated for the extra light. "The flight deck is three-hundred meters this way," Gamora said, slowly starting to walk forward.

"I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders," Drax started, "it is pleasing to once again have… friends". For a brief moment, Daniel had felt a spark of a warmth in his chest. He brushed it off as a fluke, since, he hadn't really felt warmth since that day Rocket was taken from him. Ever since then, he'd been sort of… dead inside.

"And this whor-"

"Oh, you must STOP!" Gamora yelled, turning back to the muscular man with disdain in her eyes. Before anyone else could respond, Nebula jumped down from seemingly nowhere. "Gamora, look at what you have done. You have always been weak… you stupid… traitorous-"

Before Nebula could complete her sentence, a rocket straight from Drax's rocket launcher impaled her side and sent the blue cyborg flying. "Nobody talks about my friend's like that".

Dan felt it again.

"Head to the flight deck. I'll shut down the power to disable the security doors".

"On it. Good luck!" Daniel nodded as he moved with the rest of the group. They ran through cooridor after corridor, until finally, they came face to face with their enemies.

"Star-Lord," Korath breathed, anticipating the imminent fight. Daniel rolled his eyes, _just giving into his fantasies_.

"Finally," Quill grinned, just before getting thrown across the room by his opponent. Daniel pulled his plasma pistol out and filled the nearest three sakaarans with violet bolts. One of them got a bit close for his liking, so he slit the insect's throat with his armor's integrated blade. "You will never make it Ronan," Korath assured, looking down upon Quill a few meters to Daniel's side.

"That's quite the declaration," Daniel pointed out, filling another batch of sakaarans full of plasma.

One of the insectoids managed to get behind him and put him in a chokehold, but, Groot intervened and threw the pest away. "Thanks," Daniel gasped, resuming his killing spree.

Around a minute into the fight, everything seemed to quiet down. Daniel looked over to see Drax having Korath in a death grip. Standing back, he watched as Drax explained what the meaning of a common Earth symbol meant, before ripping out a large chunk of an implant from Korath's head. "Metaphor".

"Sort of" "Somewhat", Daniel and Quill said at the same time.

"Oh no," Quill blurted. Daniel looked over to see what his new comrade was talking about. Dozens of sakaaran soldiers swarmed the hall in front of them. Daniel dove for cover to reload his weapon, but, found that by the time he had done so, his enemies had experienced death by tree branch…

"Let's move," Dan commanded, running ahead. After a few steps, he felt the ship lurch slightly, "we don't have long," he noted.

Running up the final corridor, they were confronted with the security door that Gamora had supposed to have unlocked already. Sakaaran guards poured out from ever crevasse, forcing Daniel and the rest of the group to unload nearly everything they had on them. After another minute of constant fighting, the security door opened. Quill unfolded Rocket's Hadron Enforcer and ran into the throne room.

Time slowed to a crawl. Daniel's senses were heightened even beyond the enhancements his suit automatically granted him. His attention was focused on Ronan's eyes, which, burned a sickly shade of purple. It was at this moment that he knew they were too late. He saw the Hadron Enforcer fire its shell straight at Ronan's chestplate, which, under any other circumstance, would have atomized him instantly.

"We did it!" Drax said victoriously. "Not so fast," Daniel replied, his HUD instantly drawing an outline of Ronan through the smoke. The group's smile fell as they saw the Kree stand up tall once again, with only a hole in his armor. The Kree twisted his hammer, sending a shockwave sending the entire group flying backwards. _This might be it_ , Daniel thought, the nanite solution in his pocket. Drax ran up and attempted to fight Ronan, but, just ended up in a chokehold like what happened back on Knowhere.

 _Let's get this done and over with_ , Daniel mentally sighed, starting to reach for his pocket.

Unexpectedly, out of nowhere, a Ravager M-Ship crashed through the large window overlooking Xandar and plowed right through Ronan and Drax. As a result, Ronan's flagship immediately lost power and started to plunge to the ground. Not being hit by the ship, Daniel got up and assessed the damage. The M-Ship was totaled, obviously, but, there may have been survivors. He ran up to the ship and looked in the cockpit, only to find Rocket unconscious. His HUD's sensor suite confirmed he was still alive. Using his integrated wrist-mounted blade, he cut through Rocket's seatbelt and carried him to where the others were. Doing a few rough calculations in his head, it was clear he wasn't going to survive… but maybe Rocket could. But, before he could do anything heroic, Groot started to literally surround the group. Looking up, Daniel's jaw was agape, _that could work._

"Thank you, Groot," Daniel ruefully mumbled. He knew that this action was a one-way trip for the tree, and that he was knowingly sacrificing himself for everyone else. Rocket awoke in Dan's arms, delirious. After a few seconds, the cocoon Groot had constructed with his own body surrounded the group completely. The tree filled the space with the floating lights that he had lit the way earlier with. Rocket, becoming fully aware of his environment looked up to Groot. "No, Groot, you can't… you'll die. Why are you doing this?"

"We are Groot".

Then everything went to shit.

I could go into excruciating detail about what happened to Groot, Daniel did witness it first hand, but, I think I'll just cut that out for now.

 **[FLASHBACK]**

The facility was, at least, clean. Other than that, Daniel had no idea what was going on. It had already been a day and still Rocket wasn't returned to him. They'd already returned his clothes, his technology (excluding his weapons) and placed him in living quarters that were quite the upgrade from the cramped, dusty cell they gave him earlier.

Daniel heard a chime from the door. Getting up, he wasn't quite prepared to leave, still having his HPS Mark VII suit's bodyglove on. After pressing a button, the door slid open, revealing the green woman he saw earlier. "You're expected in the test chamber in fifteen minutes," she said. Daniel looked at her quizzically, "what are we even testing?" The lady ignored him and simply walked away, locking the door behind her. "Fine, whatever then". Walking back to his bag, he stripped off the bullet / energon resistant bodyglove and hung it on his chair.

After getting washed and fully dressed, he walked towards the door. He was clad in his standard white lab coat, buttoned up with his standard navy-blue tie and white dress shirt. The lab coat itself was made of polycarbonate atomic mesh which was much lighter and stronger than your average standard issue lab coat, it was useful when being constantly surrounded by alien science. Sighing, he stood in front of the door, waiting for the green lady to come back and take him to wherever he needed to be. He checked his coat's pockets for anything that could be missing. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he pulled a tablet-like device out of one of his large, inner pockets and checked the time. _She should be here any second_ , he thought. Suddenly, the tablet pinged, indicating he'd received a message.

 ** _"From Ottawa to the stars"._**

Daniel froze. That specific code phrase was used by only one person.

Himself.

He typed, giving the correct reply, **_"and beyond; to the realities of dreams!"._**

Pressing send, he anxiously awaited a reply. He tried to trace the message, but, came up empty on that front. The signal appeared to be rerouting itself through Halfworld's communications system, making it impossible to track the source from his location. _Maybe this is just some joke the scientists are playing on me,_ Daniel reasoned, _but how would they know the code?_

After a few seconds, the door whooshed open, and, once again, the green lady stood, waiting for Daniel to start moving. "Lead the way," Daniel said, putting his tablet back into his pocket. They walked down the corridor, passing numerous labs and other facilities along the way. Daniel noted the stark aesthetic of the place, with the walls being bleached a clinical white, contrasted by the dull, grey floor. Personnel he saw in the hallway all wore grey outfits not unlike the one Dan was wearing.

Finally arriving at where they needed to be, the green lady shepherded Daniel into a room and locked the door behind them. Daniel could immediately tell that they were in an observation area behind a one-way mirror. How? The room was very dimly lit, with light streaming through the windows into a laboratory of some kind, hence, one-way mirror. There were over a dozen people observing what was happening on the other side. Raising a brow, Daniel walked over to see what was going on. Lying on a bench, partially surrounded by more scientists, was a duck. It appeared to be unconscious, but, just as Daniel laid eyes upon it, he awoke. Instead of _mindlessly_ flapping around in fear, he stayed still, observing the creatures that were watching him. It twitched its wings, seemingly random at first, however, after a few moments of observation, it became clear to Daniel that this wasn't some random muscle spasm.

It was Morse code.

Narrowing his eyes, he paid attention to every minute twitch the animal made. After a just over a minute, a message seemingly formed: MY NAME IS HOWARD. He almost pressed his nose to the glass and squinted, revealing a faint scar on the back of the duck's skull. _Son of a bitch_ , Daniel thought, looking at the creature in dismay, _what have they done to you?_ Wearing a scowl, Daniel looked around the room, trying to figure out who the hell was in charge of this circus. After a few seconds of scanning, his gaze locked to a certain humanoid standing near the opposite side of the room. Marching over with tempered anger, he asked, "Director Fallapadax, I would like to know what exactly is going on here". The director paused the conversation he was having and smiled broadly, "we're celebrating your work, Daniel. Subject 89P05 here has been implanted with many of the augmentations detailed in your files regarding the R-Series-"

Daniel stepped forward, his frown only deepening, "I understand that you are curious, but, where I come from we have _ethical_ standards. You do not give a being life just to simply throw it away". The director raised a brow, "who said anything about throwing this marvelous creation away? It's not like we aren't going to _attempt_ to complete him".

"What do you mean, _complete him_?" Daniel questioned, "you have already fragrantly disregarded my drafts for the R-Series Cyborg specs… if you attempt to go any further with this, the subject will be in immeasurable pain once…"

The director put on a diplomatic smile and wryly replied, "I am afraid that is where we would disagree, we have certain… testing protocols that have to be adhered to". Another scientist came over and whispered something into his ear. "I have to get to another chamber now. So many experiments, so little time… I'm sure you can understand". Daniel opened his mouth, but ultimately just furrowed his brow as he watched the other scientist escort the Director out of the chamber. His eyes refocused on the subject, who was now unconscious, lying on the table. After a few moments, a scientist came out of nowhere behind the glass and injected something, presumably cortisol, into the subject's neck, causing him to awake. They attached a device to the duck's neck that pulsated blue.

"My name is Howard," the duck spoke through the device. Suddenly, a scientist violently jabbed him with an electric baton. "Incorrect response, your designation is now 89P05". Daniel's jaw dropped as he watched the bird attempt to flail helplessly, only stopped by the restraints that kept him tied to the chair. He turned to look at the scientists who were behind him a few moments ago but saw that they'd already vanished. The only soul left was that of the green lady, who stood stoically at guard beside the door. Briskly walking towards the door, Daniel was about to open the door before the green lady stood in front of him, blocking his exit. "Let me out," Daniel ordered, "I cannot allow _this_ to continue!" The lady simply gave him a blank stare. Daniel glared into her eyes, "what's your name anyway, hm? Do you even have one, or are you just another product of this facility?"

Nevertheless, the green lady didn't twitch. Daniel's expression changed from that of pure horror and rage to that of silent contemplation. He knew that even if he _could_ defeat the green lady, this base must've been crawling with various security personnel, and, logically, it would be more advantageous to go along with this abomination of science, just long enough to figure out the motives involved and how to stop it. Completely changing his tact and suppressing all emotion, he calmly walked toward the two-way glass and observed the surgeries that had just begun on the subject. After a few moments, he slightly turned to the green lady and said, "I do need a name to call you".

Again, the lady didn't even as much as give eye contact. "Fine then, I'll call you Vader. You seem like quite the Vader-y type".


End file.
